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The Bully of Bentonville: How the High Cost of Wal-Mart's Everyday Low Prices Is Hurting America
In lieu of actually blogging about the book, because it's late and I want to go to bed, I give you the following:
Prof. Bainbridge blogs about Wal-Mart as the recipient of corporate "welfare" in What Left and Right Both Miss About the Wal-Mart Debate:
Once again, Wal-Mart is being used as a political football. On the left, politicians and pundits use Wal-Mart as the poster child for living wages and mandatory health care benefits. On the right, Wal-Mart is held up as a paragon of corporate efficiency.
Interestingly, however, both the left and right implicitly cast Wal-Mart in the role of free market capitalist. What's missing from the debate is the extent to which the Wal-Mart story really is the antithesis of laissez-faire capitalism. When you look under the rug, it turns out that Wal-Mart is a beneficiary of corporate welfare.
The Shunning
The Confession
The Reckoning
This is Beverly Lewis’ earlier series about the Amish in Pennsylvania. The plot has a little less mystery to it, her characters and their lives a little less moving than her later series. She is definitely improving as a writer over time. Still, if you have liked Ms. Lewis’ other writings, you will not want to miss this series.
The Preacher's Daughter
The Englisher
Note to self: Do not start a book series that the author hasn’t finished writing yet. The final installment of the trillogy will not be available until October. That’s a long time to wait for such a good book. This series, “Annie’s People”, is a little bit darker with more of a mystery to it than the “Abram’s Daughters” series.
The Total Money Makeover Workbook by Dave Ramsey
This is what I was looking for.
Bed Rest: A Novel by Sarah Bilston
The back cover proclaims, "Sarah Bilston reads like Sophie Kinsella's big sister – a bit more serious, a little wiser, just as irresistible." Since I loved, loved, loved Kinsella's The Undomestic Goddess, (a novel about a London attorney who accidentally takes a job as a housekeeper), no surprise that I liked this book as well. Our heroine, "Q", a British lawyer married to an American lawyer and living in New York City, is put on bed rest half way through her pregnancy. She has to deal with the emotional turmoil of her bed rest, her husband’s workaholic, just-about-to-come-up-for-partnership lifestyle, and her quirky family. What I would have liked a little more of is to see what Qs life as a lawyer was like before the bedrest. Also, I found it a little unrealistic that she could drop her work so quickly – I know pregnant female lawyers who put in more than a few billable hours while on bedrest, even while in the hospital. Sad, but true.
The Insiders' Guide to Relocation: Expert Advice to Move Across the State, the Country or the World by Beverly Roman
Organizing Plain and Simple: A Ready Reference Guide with Hundreds of Solutions to Your Everyday Clutter Challenges by Donna Smallin
Positive Moves: The Complete Guide to Moving You and Your Family Across Town or Across the Nation by Carolyn Janik
Moving Without Madness: A Guide to Handling the Stress & Emotions of Moving by Arlene Alpert
Smart Moves: Your Guide Through the Maze of Relocation by Audrey McCollum, MSW, Nadia Jensen, Ed.D., Stuart Copans, MD
First, we were going to move. Then we weren't. Then we were. Now we're definitley not. But to be prepared I checked out everything our library has on the subject, figuring that if we did move on short notice, I would be too busy packing and such to do a whole lot of reading. The four books listed above are in order, top to bottom, of most recommended to least recommended. As always, anything that makes my "recommended" list will have an Amazon link on the left sidebar (although I am a bit behind in getting those up).
Insider's Guide to Relocation – this is the best of the bunch, with plenty of checklists and chapters for special situations, such as foreign relocations and advice for the career-interrupted spouse (i.e., if you are relocating because your spouse has a new job and now you have to find a job in the new location). Lots of resources and a related website.
Organizing Plain & Simple – even though this book had only one chapter on moving, it was extremely helpful.
Positive Moves - helpful, but this book, written by a "real estate expert", emphasizes the real estate aspects of relocation: putting your house on the market, mortgages, etc., and is generally more geared towards company moves. Best tip for moving: in your new home, tack up a street map to the dining room wall. Mark all the important spots – schools, work, grocery stores, friends’ houses, etc. This will help orient you and your children to your new hometown.
Moving Without Madness – Focuses on the Physical, Emotional, Social, Mental, and Spiritual needs of a relocating person. I need to write a book, because if Arlene Alpert can write one, so can I. Summary: moving is tough.
Smart Moves - Summary: moving is tough, and experts think so too. Explores the difficulties of moving in excruciating detail, as only a psycotherapist, an early education specialist, and a psychiatrist can do. Some good suggestions for helping children deal with the move and information about what their concerns might be at different "ages and stages". Generally, however, this book just points out all the different ways you have to be miserable while moving.
Get Clark Smart: The Ultimate Guide to Getting Rich from America’s Money-Saving Expert by Clark Howard.
I was really excited about this book. The cover proclaims: “Hundreds of Tips for Saving Money and Investing Wisely!”. How disappointed I was to find that the very first chapter of the book is entitled “Buying a New Car.” I read no further. No one is going to get rich buying a new car. Buying new cars is what you get to do after you have become rich. The man obviously lacks a fundamental understanding of money.
This is an amazing story.
No, not Hunters of Dune
Frank Herbert is ranked with the greatest Science Fiction writers. He penned the award-winning Dune in the mid-1960s and, before his death in 1986 wrote five sequels (Dune Messiah, Children of Dune, God Emperor of Dune, Heretics of Dune, Chapterhouse: Dune). He also co-wrote Man of Two Worlds with his son, Brian Herbert, and The Road to Dune with Brian and Kevin J. Anderson. Before his death, Frank Herbert discussed with his son his plans for a seventh Dune novel. As Herbert and Anderson explain in the Author's Note to Hunters of Dune:
In 1997, more than a decade after the death of his father, Brian began to discuss with Kevin J. Anderson the possibility of completing the project, of writing the fabled Dune 7. But apparently Frank Herbert had left no notes, and we thought we would have to do the project based solely on our own imaginations. After further discussions, we realized that a great deal of preliminary work needed to be completed before we could tackle Dune 7 - not just laying groundwork for the story itself, but also reintroducing the book-buying audience and a whole new generation of readers to the incredible, highly imaginative Dune universe.
More than twenty years have passed since the publication of Chapterhouse: Dune. while many readers loved the original classic Dune or even the first three books in the series, a significant portion of the audience had not continued all the way through to that last book. We needed to reawaken interest and get those readers prepared.
We decided to write a trilogy of prequels first... When we began to dig through all of Frank Herbert's stored papers in preparation for writing House Atreides, Brian was surprised to learn of two safe-deposit boxes that his father had taken out before his death. Inside the boxes, Brian and an estate attorney discovered a dot-matrix printout and two old-style computer disks labeled "Dune 7 Outline" and "Dune 7 Notes" - pages describing exactly where the creator of Dune had intended to take his story.
Bekah of The Road Well Traveled posts some comments on Leboyer's Birth Without Violence, and I respond.
The 1000 Good Books List from the Classical Christian Education Support Loop.